Twisted Bits FAQs

image counter

  1. Which arguments are accepted by the program ?
  2. What to add in a HTML-page ?
  3. How to keep track of a page without anybody knowing ?
  4. How to reset a certain counter to zero ?
  5. What's the size of the resulting output image ?
  1. Which arguments are accepted by the program ?
    The following arguments are currently recognized:
    • width=number
      Specifies the number of digits in the resulting image.
    • link=URL of the page on which the counter is located
      The link-argument is used to keep track of a certain counter. It should be unique for each counter. A good choice is the URL of the page on which the counter image is located.
    • increase=number; default 1
      Specifies the number by which the counter should be increased. This can be used to check how many times a certain page was visited without increasing the counter. In that case specify increase=0.
      Resetting a certain counter is also possible this way by specifying a negative number here.
    • show=NO
      In case you would like to keep track of the number of accesses to a certain page without showing the counter image, specify the above argument.

  2. What to add in a HTML-page ?
    To activate a counter in a certain HTML-page add something like the following:
    < IMG SRC="http://www.twistedbits.net/cgi-bin/nph-count?arg1=value1&arg2=value2&arg3=value3">
    where arg1,2,3 are any of the supported arguments.
    NOTE: do not specify the debug argument inside a HTML-page.

    An Example:

    <IMG src="http://www.twistedbits.net/cgi-bin/nph-count?link=www.yoursite.com&width=5">

  3. How to keep track of a page without anybody knowing ?
    In the page you would like to monitor insert something like the following:
    < IMG SRC="http://www.twistedbits.net/cgi-bin/nph-count?link=link_arg&show=NO">
    and on a different HTML-page where you would like the check the counter regularly:
    < IMG SRC="http://www.twistedbits.net/cgi-bin/nph-count?link=link_arg&increase=0">

  4. How to reset a certain counter to zero ?
    If you would like to reset a counter to zero, check the counter value and the link argument you used in a HTML-page and open the following URL directly (i.e. by typing it in, in the 'open URL' box):
    http://www.twistedbits.net/cgi-bin/nph-count?link=link_arg&increase=-value
    This will reset the counter to zero (note: the counter value can not go negative).

  5. What's the size of the resulting output image ?
    The program will return a GIF-image of 20 pixels high and 15 * width pixels wide. This can used to your advantage by specifying the HEIGHT and WIDTH inside the HTML-page. By doing this, during retrieval of the page, the WWW-browser can allocate space for the image while displaying the remainder of the page.
    Example:
    < IMG SRC="http://www.twistedbits.net/cgi-bin/nph-count?width=5&link=dummy" WIDTH=75 HEIGHT=20>

Adapted from a 1995 document written by Heini Withagen